Penalties secure title for Roar

That will be the question on the lips of football fans and pundits alike after the Roar came back from two goals down to claim a remarkable grand final victory over the Central Coast Mariners.

Dead and buried after a brace of extra-time goals from Adam Kwasnik and Oliver Bozanic, many Brisbane fans threw the towel in and condemned the Roar to its grave.

But with only minutes left in the game, the Roar’s Henrique and Erik Paartalu miraculously pulled the hosts into an unlikely penalty shoot-out where Michael Theoklitos sent the 50,168 Suncorp Stadium faithful into rapture with a pair of match-winning saves.

It was an extraordinary grandstand finish which befitted a club that has had a ‘pretty memorable season’.

“(The game) was one of those … were we looked down and out,” Roar coach Ange Postecoglou said.

“But while I was sitting there, I was filing through my mind the amount of times we found something this year and I just thought it wouldn’t surprise me if this group of players found what they needed.

“We’ve had an absolutely extraordinary season and I should have expected an extraordinary finish.”

Kosta Barbarouses almost finished off a move he started on the half-way line before Milan Susak’s powerful header nearly provided the goal the first-half deserved.

The Mariners have yet to beat the Roar in five attempts this season and Kwasnik tried the unthinkable to halt that run, trying an audacious chip from 40 metres out.

Mariners’ striker Simon should have given the visitors the lead late in the half, but he screwed his shot wide from dead in front.

Torrential rain greeted the players at the start of the second half but both sides refused to dampen the game’s attacking intensity.

Jean Carlos Solorzano blasted straight at Ryan, while the Mariners’ forward line loaded up from long distance.

The home side was beginning to ramp up the pressure on the Mariners’ defence with Franjic, McKay and Paartalu all coming close to unlocking the stalemate.

But with both sides valiantly searching for the match winning goal, the play began to stem its flood of chances and excitement.

Both coaches introduced fresh attacking impetus in the forms of Daniel McBreen and Henrique, but the changes did little to spark a new wave of goal-mouth creativity.

Clear cut chances were beginning to diminish and so was regulation time, but with little left in the tank for both sides, extra time was needed to separate the league’s top two teams.

Roar fans’ hearts were in their mouths when play resumed as young Bernie Ibini-Isei broke through clear on goal, but A-League goalkeeper of the year Theoklitos made the save.

However, the Roar failed to heed the warning and moments later Pedj Bojic and Ibini-Isei combined to setup Adam Kwasnik with the easiest of finishes.

The Roar needed a goal and streamed forward in search of its grand final salvation, but instead, its doom was seemingly sealed when Oliver Bozanic scored his second goal in successive matches against the Roar.

Claiming the ball in the middle of the park, Ibini-Isei threaded the ball through to Kwasnik who put it on a plate for Bozanic after Theoklitos saved the striker’s opening shot.

But the script still had a dramatic twist and the impossible was made possible in an amazing, mad final three minutes which will live long in Roar folklore.

Substitute Henrique was the first hero for the Roar, creating what none of his team-mates couldn’t for 117 minutes – a goal.

And the match somehow found its way to penalties when, in the dying seconds, Paartalu rose highest to slam home a Thomas Broich corner.

And the amazing comeback was complete when Theoklitos pulled off two crucial saves, leaving Henrique to complete a 4-2 shootout win.

After a long campaign, a 28-match unbeaten run and now a minor premiership and championship double, Postecoglou said the club was standing on the threshold of a football dynasty.

“I like to think we are building some strong foundations for the future,” he said.

“Certainly our intentions were never to be a flash in the pan, we have to back it up.